Lawyer: Tutor thought child had gun; injuries were accident

Updated 9:00 pm, Thursday, December 1, 2016

BALTIMORE (AP) — A tutor in a Baltimore school who is charged with slamming a 7-year-old boy against a wall thought the child had a gun, his lawyer said.

The now-fired tutor, Timothy Korr, 25, of Baltimore, had a bail hearing Thursday. His lawyer, Kurt Nachtman, said by phone that Korr was thinking about the boy's safety when he picked him up to take him to the principal's office. The scratching and clawing boy was hurt, he said, when Korr lost his balance on some stairs.

Korr, who is charged with child abuse, assault, reckless endangerment and neglect of a minor, was ordered held on $250,000 bail.

Two students at City Springs Elementary/Middle School told Korr the boy was brandishing a gun, Nachtman said. Korr found the boy rolling around on the ground and patted the child down.

The tutor felt a bulge in the child's pants pocket, Nachtman said, and asked if he could remove the object. The boy refused to cooperate, and Korr picked the child up, intending to take him to the principal's office.

After the boy was hurt, Korr took him to the nurse's office, and Korr removed a cap gun or BB gun from the child's pocket, Nachtman said. Korr left the gun in the nurse's office.

Monday's incident at City Springs Elementary/Middle School was recorded on school surveillance video, police said. Nachtman has not seen the video but said he would file a subpoena for it Friday.

The boy was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, his parents said, and his some of injuries, which include bruising, swelling, cuts and missing teeth, with require surgery.

Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith, who has seen the video, said in an email Thursday night that he had no information about a gun. "To throw a 7-year-old against the wall, rendering him unconscious, was absolutely unnecessary," he said.